Tagged with: iPlayer

Posts (64)

Today, we launched a major new version of the BBC iPlayer Radio app. This means for the first time, you will be able to download BBC radio programmes in full to your smartphone or tablet, listen to them offline without the need for an internet connection and keep them to enjoy for up to 30 days.

We felt strongly that creating a consistent iPlayer navigation pattern across Android and iOS is the right approach, as we know more and more households have both mobile platforms accessing iPlayer; for example many use smart phones along with shared family tablets.

To achieve the user experience and resilience that we all expect, it is crucial to find the right balance between reaching the largest possible audience and the additional complexity of supporting an ever expanding set of devices and operating systems.

For our latest project, we took a simple low cost brainwave reading headset and created a ‘Mind Control TV’ prototype. It allows users to open an experimental version of BBC iPlayer and select a TV programme to view, using nothing but their brainwaves.

After listening to people using our existing phone app, we know listeners expect a tailored BBC iPlayer Radio app that makes the most out of both the capabilities of and the way that they use their tablet.

One addition that was required to support this was a new mechanism to allow navigation through the menus. The 'Next Page' buttons were added to show the next set of items in a menu, where previously it was only possible to scroll through the items one at a time via the navigation keys.